As a year-end review, Mayor Enrique Cresto referred to the conclusion of 2017, the objectives achieved in these first two years of administration, and the main challenges for 2018.
"We have worked hard to address project fronts related to the expansion of the municipalities' own competencies in education, security, and production, which were not issues inherent to municipal jurisdiction but are necessary to address in order to transform the matrix and project the city's development," highlighted Cresto in the last broadcast of the year of the television program "El Municipio Informa y Responde".
"Today we have major projects underway, many being executed, the Water Plant, the Sewage Treatment Plant, the Habitat Program, Promeba IV, the reactivation of the Airport," he listed some. "We have expanded the municipality's vehicle fleet without generating debt for the State, we recovered the Asphalt Plant, we have a road improvement program underway, and we are defining a Strategic Program to address the essential functions of the municipality, such as waste collection, the eradication of micro-dumps, which are issues we have worked on and much has been done, but we must deepen and improve even further," he announced.
Transparency
"This is a transparent but also efficient administration. Honesty is useless if it is not accompanied by efficiency," asserts Cresto. "That is what I demand from my officials: commitment to the administration, efficiency, and transparency," he summarized.
Upon assuming his administration, he decided to freeze the staff payroll. Thus, Concordia became the first (and so far only) Municipality in Entre Ríos to organize a Competitive Examination and Background Assessment for hiring personnel, as happened with the ten traffic agents selected from more than 100 applicants who also completed various training courses, with the aim of improving the quality of public employment and ensuring transparency.
During 2017, the Municipality of Concordia was distinguished by the Ministry of the Interior in the National Ranking of Municipalities, and occupied the top positions in the Fiscal Visibility and Transparency ranking of the Argentine Institute of Fiscal Analysis.
Efficiency
"In nine months of work, we have executed around 75% of the Habitat Program in the Carretera La Cruz, ex Aero Club, Gruta de Lourdes, Goretti, and Tiro Federal neighborhoods," pointed out Cresto. The infrastructure works, pavement, curb and gutter, lighting, and a profound social development program, with training, workshops, and sports promotion, represent "a historical reparation for the southern zone," emphasizes Cresto.
Efficiency, optimization, and transparency in the administration of these resources "allowed us to present an expansion of the Habitat works in the southern zone, an expansion we are currently managing, and the possibility of implementing other programs for the entire city. In all of them, the main beneficiaries are low-income families," he assured.
"The new Water Plant, a multi-million dollar work that will solve the water problem for the coming decades, is a work that will mainly benefit low-income sectors. Because when there are water problems, it is not the people who live in the center, but those in the most peripheral neighborhoods," he maintained. "We are replacing LED lighting throughout the Tourist zone and on the main avenues and the micro-center. And we managed to get authorization so that 50% of the sodium lighting we removed can be used in neighborhoods where we currently do not have light," commented Cresto. "In 2018, all of Concordia will be illuminated, and that brings better quality of life, more security, more comfort, for everyone," he highlighted.
Consensus
"Respect for the rules began to exist," expressed Cresto in another part of the interview. "Ordinances that existed and were not being followed are now being complied with. It is what the people ask for. Of course, when the resident receives a fine because they do not have the sidewalk built, they are annoyed at first, but then they end up being grateful. Because they understand what the objective is. And that is the change that people want," said the mayor.
"The majority of the ordinances were approved unanimously, but not because the councilors do not debate, but because we put each project up for discussion by everyone, so that it can be improved, always thinking about the good of Concordia," he assured. This work modality is repeated in other instances, such as the creation of the Production Council, together with scientific organizations and producers, or the Security Council, in which all forces and other institutions participate and from which the impulse for the Video Surveillance System arose, now active with more than 56 cameras and in the process of expansion in coordination with the Provincial and National Government; or the Panic Button, software developed with municipal resources to combat gender violence and which is beginning to be replicated in other municipalities of the province and neighboring provinces.
"The most important thing we have achieved together is this new way of building politics that allows us to plan the Concordia we want for the future, transforming the matrix, to boost the development of the most thriving city in the Mesopotamia," emphasized Cresto.
The mayor ends the year touring works in progress, such as the repairs and construction of sidewalks at the Corsódromo, the pavement in Villa Zorraquín, and the 500-block graveling program which already has 140 executed, and defining together with his team the tasks for the first months of 2018 that will allow him to reach the objectives he set, in what he called a Strategic Program of Essential Services.